Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff are amongst 20 main tennis gamers who signed a letter despatched to the heads of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments in search of extra prize cash and a larger say in what they known as “choices that straight influence us.”
The letter, a duplicate of which was obtained Thursday by The Related Press, is dated March 21 and begins with a request for an in-person assembly at this month’s Madrid Open between representatives of the gamers and the 4 individuals to whom it was addressed: Craig Tiley of the Australian Open, Stephane Morel of the French Open, Sally Bolton of Wimbledon and Lew Sherr of the US Open.
On the backside of the message are the handwritten signatures of 10 of the highest 11 ladies within the rankings from the week of March 3 — Elena Rybakina’s title is lacking — and the total checklist of the highest 10 males that week.
The ladies are the No. 1-ranked Sabalenka, Gauff, Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Jasmine Paolini, Emma Navarro, Zheng Qinwen, Paula Badosa and Mirra Andreeva. The boys are the No. 1-ranked Sinner — who’s presently serving a three-month doping ban — 24-time main champion Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur.
Of the 20, 15 have received a minimum of one Grand Slam title or reached a serious last.
The gamers define three areas they need to deal with:
• Grand Slam tournaments ought to make monetary contributions to participant welfare packages funded by the 2 professional excursions.
• Prize cash ought to enhance “to a extra applicable proportion of match revenues, reflective of the gamers’ contribution to match worth.”
• The athletes ought to have extra say in choices “straight impacting competitors, in addition to participant well being and welfare.”
Information of the letter — which was first talked about by French sports activities newspaper L’Equipe — arrives about two weeks after the gamers’ affiliation co-founded by Djokovic filed an antitrust lawsuit in opposition to the ladies’s and males’s skilled excursions, the Worldwide Tennis Federation and the game’s integrity company in federal courtroom in New York. Djokovic was not listed as one of many plaintiffs, as a result of he mentioned he wished to see different gamers step up.
That swimsuit seeks more cash for gamers, saying too little of the income results in the athletes’ arms, and lays out a sequence of different complaints about the way in which the game is run.
The antitrust submitting final month included a reference to a report “that the U.S. Open generated extra income from the sale of 1 specialty cocktail ($12.8 million) than it paid to the boys’s and girls’s champions mixed.”
The U.S. Tennis Affiliation provided a report whole of $75 million in whole compensation — which incorporates prize cash and payouts to cowl gamers’ bills — for its Grand Slam match in 2024. That represented a rise of about 15% from the $65 million provided in 2023 on the US Open.
Based mostly on foreign money trade figures on the instances of the occasions, Wimbledon had about $64 million in prizes final yr, with the French Open and Australian Open each at about $58 million.
“The USTA is at all times obtainable for and welcomes open and direct conversations with gamers, whether or not on website on the U.S. Open or at another level of the yr, as we’re persistently searching for methods to reinforce our occasion for the good thing about gamers and followers,” spokesman Brendan McIntyre mentioned in a written assertion.
“The USTA is extremely pleased with the U.S. Open’s management in participant compensation all through its historical past and our assist to develop skilled tennis not solely in the US however worldwide,” he wrote. “This consists of providing equal prize cash to women and men for greater than 50 years and awarding the biggest purse in tennis historical past on the 2024 U.S. Open.”
The subsequent Grand Slam match is the French Open, with main-draw matches beginning in Paris on Could 25.
